Chapter Ten

“I thought Adam was your fake boyfriend.”

Jules had known this was coming the second she got out of Adam’s truck. Frankly, she was surprised Aubry had waited until they were alone to pounce. She moved around the now-closed café, wiping down tables. Her cousin Jamie had already closed the till and taken off for some hot date, so it was just Jules and Aubry and the cats left. “We are.”

“So you were having fake sex out in nature like horndog apes?”

She rolled her eyes. “We didn’t have sex.” Because he put on the brakes. She’d been so out of her mind with pleasure, she wasn’t sure she would have been smart enough to call the whole thing off just because there wasn’t a condom handy. And that was downright unforgivable. She wanted to be scandalous—not stupid. And having unprotected sex with a fake boyfriend, no matter how safe Adam made her feel, was stupid beyond belief.

“But you wanted to have sex.”

Yes. She did. A lot. More than a lot. Jules scrubbed at a coffee stain in the center of one table, pausing to nudge Ninja Kitteh out of the way when the striped cat came to snoop. “We’re two consenting adults. I don’t see how it matters.”

“Totally not my point.” Aubry double-checked the lock on the front door and headed for her table.

“Then, pray tell, what is your point?”

Her friend frowned. “I’m not judging—not really. That’s not what we do. I just don’t want to see you get hurt because your heart gets involved. That guy might be cool as hell—and he is—but he’s spent a grand total of like a month in Devil’s Falls in the last however many years. A guy like that doesn’t have roots, and your roots are deeper than deep. You’re not leaving this place and he’s not staying.”

“Don’t project your relationship issues on me.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. “Oh my God, I’m a horrible friend for saying that. I’m sorry. I’m just so on edge with Grant and Adam and…there’s no excuse. Forgive me?”

“Always.” Aubry zipped the laptop case closed. “And you’re right. I’m even more of a hot mess than you are when it comes to men. I’m just a Ford tough mama bear who’s feeling protective. If he breaks your heart, I’m liable to set his truck on fire.”

The scary part was that Jules wasn’t exactly sure if her friend was joking or not. It was a step of crazy that Aubry would never take for herself—if she had, then her asshole ex would definitely have seen the results—but for Jules…yeah, she’d do that and worse. She walked over and hugged her friend. “I love you.”

“I know. I love you, too. Just…be careful.”

“I will. I promise.” Even as she said the words, she knew they weren’t the full truth. When it came to Adam, she was on a roller coaster and the safety brakes were gone. There was only one possible outcome, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. It would be one heck of a ride before she crashed and burned.

“No, you won’t, but that’s okay.” Aubry stepped back. “Do you have a hot date tonight, too, or can we please shoot some people? I have so much pent-up aggression after spending the afternoon trapped on that horrid body of water with the biggest asshat in town.”

Jules laughed. “Grant’s bad, but I don’t know that he’s that bad.”

“One, yes, he is. Two, I wasn’t talking about him.”

Jules turned off the main lights in the café, leaving the one over the counter on. Even though she knew the cats didn’t care, she didn’t like leaving them in complete darkness. She checked the lock on the front door one last time and then followed Aubry through the kitchen and up the back stairs to their apartment. “Quinn isn’t a bad guy. I think he’s funny.”

“Funny for a performing bear.”

There was no arguing with her friend when she got like this. When it came to new people, Aubry was judge, jury, and executioner—nine times out of ten, she hated them on sight. Apparently she’d already passed judgment on Adam and Daniel’s friend. To be fair, he seemed to really like getting a rise out of her. “If you say so.”

“This is why we get along so well. You don’t expect me to like people.”

She unlocked the door at the top of the stairs and held it open. “You like me.”

“You aren’t people. You’re my people. Totally different thing.” Aubry dropped her laptop on the tiny dining room table and plopped down on the overstuffed couch taking up the majority of the equally tiny living room. “Let’s do this.”

“I don’t suppose you want something like food before we start?”

“Food is for the weak.”

Jules laughed. She should have known that would be the answer. “All the same, I’m going to order pizza. There’s nothing in the fridge.”

“I wish this place had more options for delivery. Little Johnny Jacob has started giving me judgmental looks when he brings me food.”

“That’s because you prefer to just order pizza instead of going down the street to one of our restaurants and interacting with real-life people.”

Aubry turned on the Xbox and propped her feet on the table. “I believe we just covered this—people are not my favorite.”

“Noted.” Jules picked up her phone and froze when there was a knock on her door. “Okay, I know Johnny Jacob is good, but no one is that good.” She walked over and opened the door and then stared. “What are you doing here?”

Adam stood on the top stair, looking all sorts of delicious with his worn jeans and black T-shirt. He held up hands laden with beer and a pizza box sending out the most amazing smells. “I brought pizza and beer.”

“Let him in,” Aubry yelled from behind her. “I’m liable to waste away from starvation if I don’t eat soon. They’ll find me on the couch, and there will be whispers of, ‘If only Jules had let her fake boyfriend inside in time. Such a tragedy.’”

“I thought you said food was for the weak.” She stepped back, holding the door open for Adam. “You’re an awful drama queen—and inconsistent to boot.”

“Noted,” Aubry sang a second before the sound of video game gunshots filled the room.

Jules led Adam over to the small kitchen and grabbed three of the bright plastic plates that made her mother cringe every time she saw them. She opened the pizza box and put two slices on each plate while Adam popped the tops off three beers. They deposited the food and beer in front of Aubry, but she shook her head. “You two need to talk. Git.”

“Did you just say ‘git’?” There went Adam’s eyebrow.

“Don’t you, like, ride bulls or something? You’re a cowboy. I’m speaking your language.” She tore her gaze away from the screen for half a second. “Seriously, though—what kind of death wish do you have that you’d climb onto the back of a pissed-off bull? Did your daddy not tell you he loves you enough?”

Jules saw the tightening in Adam’s jaw and the way his shoulders braced ever so slightly. She shifted her grip on the plates and touched his arm. “Let’s go into my room.” When he turned toward her door, she shot a glare at Aubry and hissed, “Stop being rude.” Jules didn’t give her friend time to respond before she nudged Adam fully into her room and shut the door.

Looking around, she realized this was the dumbest plan ever. They had to step over her dirty clothes pile to get to the bed, which was covered in her clean clothes pile. Probably should have found time to fold laundry in the last week. She couldn’t let him sit there while she scrambled to put away her clothes and unmentionables. It didn’t matter if he’d had his mouth on the same parts of her that those unmentionables covered. It was just weird.

She skirted the edge of the bed and moved to the window. “Sorry about the mess.”

“It’s fine.” But he was looking at everything like he was committing it to memory. With her luck, that was exactly what he was doing. She set the plates down long enough to muscle open the window. That got Adam’s attention. “What are you doing?”

“Come on.” She slipped out the window and reached back in to grab the plates. A few seconds later, Adam joined her on the roof. “I like to come out here and think sometimes.”

He peered over the edge to where they could see the majority of the main street. “And spy on the poor people of Devil’s Falls. No wonder there’s so much gossip.”

She started to argue but then laughed. “Maybe a little spying. People stumble out from the bar”—that didn’t actually have a name beyond “the bar”—“and they forget that sound travels.” Jules took a sip of her beer. “Plus, no one ever sees me up here.”

“Fair enough.” He went after his pizza with the single-minded focus of someone who didn’t know when their next meal would be—or who wanted to avoid conversation.

The problem was that avoiding conversations wasn’t something Jules was particularly good at. She would rather burst through the awkwardness like the Kool-Aid Man came through the wall—all at once, just to get it over with. It wasn’t subtle, but subtlety wasn’t really in her skill set. “So, I don’t know what to think of what happened earlier.”

He chewed his bite and swallowed, not looking at her. “You mean when you came against my mouth and then sucked me off.”

Her body flushed hot. Guess he’s not great at being subtle, either. “Yeah, that.” He didn’t immediately jump in with something reassuring, so she just kept talking. “It was good. It was really, really good. I just, ah—”

“I’m not staying.”

The words came out so harshly she had to take a moment to fight back her instinctive response. Finally, she said, “I never asked you to.”

“Right.” He set the plate down and stretched out his legs. “So, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way—”

Is he serious? “Adam, we have to talk about this. I mean, obviously we’re not dating for real, and I don’t exactly go hook up with almost strangers on the fly under normal circumstances. I just…” God, she didn’t even know what she was trying to say.

“Sugar, breathe.” He took her hand, the contact steadying her. “It’s okay. We don’t have to go there. I lost control. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

That was not what she wanted. Jules bit her lip, searching his face. In the fading light of the day, his eyes were too dark as he stared at her mouth. He wanted her. He wouldn’t have lost control in the first place if he didn’t. So why was he trying to give her an out?

For such a supposed bad boy, he’s sure got a lot of honor.

The realization struck a chord in her chest. She finished off her beer and set it carefully aside. “I don’t want you to have control.” Before he could do anything but frown at her, she crawled over and straddled him. “Look, I know this isn’t real. I obviously have no experience in this sort of thing or I wouldn’t need to scandalize the town in the first place.” She took his hands and set them on her hips. “Why don’t we just enjoy ourselves while you’re helping me out?”

His lips twitched, but his grip tightened on her hips a little. “Sugar, we don’t have to do this. We can keep the gossip mill churning without taking things beyond where we went earlier.”

Yeah, there really is an honorable man in there. “I know, but I want to.” She could feel him growing hard between her thighs, and she settled against him with a little sigh. Jules leaned forward until her breasts were pressed against his chest. She felt a little silly trying to proposition him, but he wasn’t tossing her on her butt, so she must not be doing too badly. She held her breath and kissed the spot on his neck right below his jaw. “Adam, I would very much like to have sex with you.”